Kowallick JT, Lotz J, Hasenfuß G, Schuster A. Left atrial physiology and pathophysiology: Role of deformation imaging. World J Cardiol 2015; 7(6): 299-305 [PMID: 26131333 DOI: 10.4330/wjc.v7.i6.299]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Dr. Andreas Schuster, MD, PhD, FESC, Lecturer, Department of Cardiology and Pneumology, Georg-August University, Robert-Koch-Strasse 40, D-37075 Göttingen, Germany. andreas_schuster@gmx.net
Research Domain of This Article
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Article-Type of This Article
Editorial
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Cardiol. Jun 26, 2015; 7(6): 299-305 Published online Jun 26, 2015. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v7.i6.299
Left atrial physiology and pathophysiology: Role of deformation imaging
Johannes Tammo Kowallick, Joachim Lotz, Gerd Hasenfuß, Andreas Schuster
Johannes Tammo Kowallick, Joachim Lotz, Gerd Hasenfuß, Andreas Schuster, DZHK (German Centre for Cardiovascular Research), partner site Göttingen, D-37075 Göttingen, Germany
Johannes Tammo Kowallick, Joachim Lotz, Institute for Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Georg-August University, D-37075 Göttingen, Germany
Johannes Tammo Kowallick, Andreas Schuster, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Division of Imaging Sciences, The Rayne Institute, St Thomas Hospital, King’s College School of Medicine London, London SE1 7EH, United Kingdom
Gerd Hasenfuß, Andreas Schuster, Department of Cardiology and Pneumology, Georg-August University, D-37075 Göttingen, Germany
Author contributions: Kowallick JT, Lotz J, Hasenfuß G and Schuster A contributed in accordance with the standard proposed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors to this paper.
Supported by The DZHK (German Centre for Cardiovascular Research); the BMBF (German Ministry of Education and Research); the Research program of the Faculty of Medicine of the Georg-August-University in Göttingen, Germany.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Andreas Schuster, MD, PhD, FESC, Lecturer, Department of Cardiology and Pneumology, Georg-August University, Robert-Koch-Strasse 40, D-37075 Göttingen, Germany. andreas_schuster@gmx.net
Telephone: +49-551-3920400 Fax: +49-551-396389
Received: November 26, 2014 Peer-review started: November 26, 2014 First decision: December 12, 2014 Revised: January 6, 2015 Accepted: April 27, 2015 Article in press: April 29, 2015 Published online: June 26, 2015 Processing time: 210 Days and 20.6 Hours
Abstract
The left atrium (LA) acts as a modulator of left ventricular (LV) filling. Although there is considerable evidence to support the use of LA maximum and minimum volumes for disease prediction, theoretical considerations and a growing body of literature suggest to focus on the quantification of the three basic LA functions: (1) Reservoir function: collection of pulmonary venous return during LV systole; (2) Conduit function: passage of blood to the left ventricle during early LV diastole; and (3) Contractile booster pump function (augmentation of ventricular filling during late LV diastole. Tremendous advances in our ability to non-invasively characterize all three elements of atrial function include speckle tracking echocardiography (STE), and more recently cardiovascular magnetic resonance myocardial feature tracking (CMR-FT). Corresponding imaging biomarkers are increasingly recognized to have incremental roles in determining prognosis and risk stratification in cardiac dysfunction of different origins. The current editorial introduces the role of STE and CMR-FT for the functional assessment of LA deformation as determined by strain and strain rate imaging and provides an outlook of how this exciting field may develop in the future.
Core tip: Recent advances in speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) and cardiovascular magnetic resonance myocardial feature tracking (CMR-FT) allow a detailed quantification of left atrium (LA) dynamics in terms of strain and strain rate imaging. Corresponding imaging biomarkers are progressively found to have the potential to predict the outcome in a variety of cardiovascular disease states. The current editorial introduces the role of STE and CMR-FT for the functional assessment of LA deformation and provides an outlook of how this exciting field may evolve in the future.
